The consumer electronics industry has created many stand alone products for specific functions, such as television viewing, video recording and playback, broadband video receivers, playing recorded music and broadcast music. Much of this function is being provided by computer systems. However, computer systems were initially designed to run complex computer programming. When these systems were turned on, it took significant amounts of time to load in required programming and test the system. In addition, when the systems were turned off, they required time to ensure that all data was properly stored, and the system was shut down in an orderly fashion. These long times to turn on and shut down computer systems were very different from the instant on and off features found in a television set.
Computer systems today have very advanced forms of power management available. Many portable systems have various power modes designed to conserve batteries. After predetermined periods of non-use, they enter these modes, shutting down predetermined components, such as disk drive devices and displays. Further, personal computer systems which do not use batteries often have screen savers, and display power management that places the display in a standby mode. In standby modes, the display is essentially shut down. This is usually accomplished by high level programming, such as advanced power management APM functions in Windows 95 by Microsoft which defines commands to use in placing multiple devices into different power management modes. In a further prior art system, a screen saver has a hot corner, which when selected, puts the display in standby mode.
There is a need for personal computers which play video and audio signals to operate more like a television set to meet the expectations of user which are comfortable with the mode of operation of televisions and other common consumer devices. There is a need for a personal computer to provide power management functions which bridge the gap between older computer systems, and their long waiting times on power up and down, and the instant on/off features of television sets.